A decorative facade wall is often used to enhance the appearance of a building. Many different materials can be used for the facade, such as marble, slate, metal, wood or leather. A decorative facade wall is often made of multiple wall elements or panels. The panels typically have dimensions that are smaller than the dimensions of the entire wall. The smaller dimensions make it easier to transport, store, handle and mount the panels. Also, if a panel is damaged, only that panel need be replaced, rather than the entire wall.
One method of creating a decorative facade wall is to first create a non-decorative wall and then attach decorative panels with adhesive. This method is often used with very small (less than ˜1 inch) and light wall panels, such as when making a mosaic. However, it is not very suitable to larger (˜6 inch or larger) panels of heavier material, such as metal or stone. Panels held by adhesive will probably not be entirely reliable and falling panels can be a safety hazard. Also, it is unlikely that the surface topography of large panels and the underlying non-decorative wall will be a perfect match, resulting in an uneven surface from one panel to another. With larger panels, this becomes much more noticeable.
A more common method for building a decorative facade wall with heavier panels is to build a frame wall and then hang the panels on the frame wall. The frame wall is typically made of metal, but may be of other suitable material. It is usually highly desired for aesthetic purposes that the means for attaching the panel to the frame not be readily visible from the front of the wall. Thus, each panel usually has panel mounting hardware attached to the back of the panel that allows it to be mounted to the frame. Metal panels typically have the panel mounting hardware welded or bolted to the back of the panel. Stone panels often have holes drilled part way through the back of the panel and the panel mounting hardware attached by expansion bolts set in the holes.
The panel mounting hardware and/or the frame typically have some means of adjusting the position and/or orientation of each panel. For example, the panel mounting hardware could be threaded bolts set in the panel that engage with threaded nuts in the frame. Selective adjustment of the threaded nuts can be used to adjust the position and/or orientation of a panel. However, a technician performing the adjustment in this case must be behind the facade wall. This means that there must be access to the backside of the facade wall for the technician to work. Providing this access is an inefficient use of space in many circumstances. Also, it is difficult for the technician performing the adjustment to determine the effects of the adjustment without seeing how the front side of the panel matches up with the front side of neighboring panels. Either the technician has to run back and forth or a second person is needed to report to the technician the effects of the adjustment. What is needed is a device that mounts a wall panel to a frame and allows adjustment to the position and/or orientation of the panel to be performed from the front of the panel.